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Volcanism in the Mount Taylor Region, New Mexico L New Mexico Geological Society Downloaded from: http://nmgs.nmt.edu/publications/guidebooks/33 Volcanism in the Mount Taylor region, New Mexico L. S. Crumpler, 1982, pp. 291-298 in: Albuquerque Country II, Wells, S. G.; Grambling, J. A.; Callender, J. F.; [eds.], New Mexico Geological Society 33rd Annual Fall Field Conference Guidebook, 370 p. This is one of many related papers that were included in the 1982 NMGS Fall Field Conference Guidebook. Annual NMGS Fall Field Conference Guidebooks Every fall since 1950, the New Mexico Geological Society (NMGS) has held an annual Fall Field Conference that explores some region of New Mexico (or surrounding states). Always well attended, these conferences provide a guidebook to participants. Besides detailed road logs, the guidebooks contain many well written, edited, and peer-reviewed geoscience papers. These books have set the national standard for geologic guidebooks and are an essential geologic reference for anyone working in or around New Mexico. Free Downloads NMGS has decided to make peer-reviewed papers from our Fall Field Conference guidebooks available for free download. Non-members will have access to guidebook papers two years after publication. Members have access to all papers. This is in keeping with our mission of promoting interest, research, and cooperation regarding geology in New Mexico. However, guidebook sales represent a significant proportion of our operating budget. Therefore, only research papers are available for download. Road logs, mini-papers, maps, stratigraphic charts, and other selected content are available only in the printed guidebooks. Copyright Information Publications of the New Mexico Geological Society, printed and electronic, are protected by the copyright laws of the United States. No material from the NMGS website, or printed and electronic publications, may be reprinted or redistributed without NMGS permission. Contact us for permission to reprint portions of any of our publications. One printed copy of any materials from the NMGS website or our print and electronic publications may be made for individual use without our permission. Teachers and students may make unlimited copies for educational use. Any other use of these materials requires explicit permission. This page is intentionally left blank to maintain order of facing pages. New Mexico Geological Society Guidebook, 33rd Field Conference, Albuquerque Country II, 1982 291 VOLCANISM IN THE MOUNT TAYLOR REGION L. S. CRUMPLER Department of Planetary Sciences University of Arizona Tucson, Arizona 85721 INTRODUCTION Mount Taylor and its adjoining field of late Cenozoic cones am domes, Mesa Chivato, are prominent features on the western horizoi of Albuquerque (fig. 1). The purpose of this paper is to synthesize ou current knowledge about volcanism in the Mount Taylor region. Volcanic fields occur intermittently along the margin of the Colorad( Plateau, and locally, it is difficult to categorically define where on volcanic field ends and another begins. In this review the Mount Taylo region shall be defined as a region bounded on the east by Mesa PrieL in the Rio Puerco valley, on the west by the Bandera volcanic field on the north by Cabezon Peak volcanic neck, and on the south by Zun Salt Lake (fig. 2). The Mount Taylor "field" encompasses Pliocene Pleistocene basalts and differentiated rocks capping high mesas at th( foot of the Mount Taylor composite volcano and adjacent high mesas The Mount Taylor region includes the collective areas of volcanisn overshadowed by Mount Taylor, such as the volcanism in the Bander area of the Zuni Mountains and the young McCartys lava flow (se( Maxwell, this guidebook). OVERVIEW OF VOLCANISM Volcanism in the Mount Taylor region is similar to that occurrinl elsewhere along the boundary between the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range province (see Laughlin and others, this guidebook) Mount Taylor is similar in many respects to the other large composite "andesitic" volcanoes along the periphery of the Colorado Plateau. I forms a composite accumulation of rhyolite, trachyte, alkali andesite and other mafic rocks erupted in late Cenozoic time, and it is surroundec by fields of older and younger monogenetic, dominantly basaltic cinde] cones and flows. Volcanism throughout the Mount Taylor region appears to have oc- curred over the last 4 m.y. (Table 1), or 7 m.y. if Mesa Gallina, southeasi of Mount Taylor, is included. A histogram of all available dates (fig. 3) reveals that the bulk of the dated flows lie in the 3.5 m.y. to 2.( my. range. The increased number of flows younger than 500,000 year may reflect a sampling bias toward younger flows. Some of the oldest activity recognized in the region includes trachyte and rhyolite dome-building eruptions, which initiated volcanism at the present site of Mount Taylor (Bassett and others, 1963; Lipman am others, 1978). Rhyolite ash and pumice underlie many of the oldesi basalts capping high mesas around Mount Taylor, and they have beer found beneath the lowest flow units as far north as the northern end ol Mesa Chivato. Most of the radiometric dates are concentrated in the area immediately surrounding Mount Taylor and little is known about the chronology of basalts to the southeast of Mount Taylor (however, see Baldridge, road- log segment II-B, this guidebook). One basalt flow in the Lucero Mesa area (Carrizo Mesa) was dated at 3.5 my. (Bachman and Mehnert, 1978). Younger basaltic activity is widely dispersed south of Mount Taylor. This includes the Laguna basalt flow, El Tintero flow west of Grants, McCartys basalt flow, and the Bandera area in the southern Zuni Moun- tains area, all of which are in the 500,000-1,000 year age range. Many of the vents for basalts in the region show linear alignment indicative of control by dominating northeasterly and west-northwest- erly basement structures (see Laughlin and others, this guidebook). In the northern part of the Mount Taylor field (Mesa Chivato), surface faults follow several northeastward-trending fissure vents and formed subsequent to fissure volcanism. The reverse is also true; thus, showing the complex relationship that exists between recent structural move- ments and basaltic volcanism in the region (Crumpler, 1980). Similarly, several vents in the Bandera area are closely related to faulting, such as the Paxton Springs and Cerro Colorado vents which erupted in structurally-controlled canyons within the Zuni Mountains (Laughlin and others, 1972b). Both of these vents occur in the Precambrian crys- talline terrane of the Zuni Mountains. The overall northeasterly alignment of the Mount Taylor and Bandera areas with the Jemez, Raton, White Mountain, and Pinacate fields has VOLCANISM 293 suggested to some researchers that a major continental northeast-trend- field. Laughlin and others (19726) estimate that this flow is older than ing basement weakness has played a part in controlling the location of the McCartys flow but younger than the flow which is directly overlain the volcanism (Mayo, 1958; Laughlin and others, 1972b; Laughlin and by the McCartys near its terminus (i.e., <188,000 years). others, this guidebook). It has been suggested that this lineament rep- The Zuni Salt Lake crater, 80 km southwest of the Bandera field, is resents a hot-spot trace (Suppe and others, 1975). However, the local a young maar-type vent in which many primary morphologic features age of eruptions appears to be randomly distributed along the lineament of typical maars are preserved (Bradbury, 1967; Cummings, 1968; (Lipman and Mehnert, 1975), and this does not support the simple age Aubele and others, 1976). It is unusual, however, in that it has cinder progression model normally attributed to moving hot spots. cones built on its floor. In fact, the Zuni Salt Lake maar is the type The Bandera field is situated on the southern edge of the Zuni Uplift; locality for this type of maar. whereas, the Mount Taylor field lies on the Acoma Sag. Although Somewhat older, but still preserving many primary flow features, is volcanism on uplifted terrain is not uncommon, volcanism situated on the tholeiitic El Tintero cone and flows west of Grants (Thaden and sags is more anomalous. The Mount Taylor field is anomalous in other Ostling, 1967; Lipman and Moench, 1972). Another older tholeiite flow respects, including extreme Tia, enrichment of early basaltic rocks and (370,000 years) fills the Rio San Jose valley near the site of Laguna overall similarity of its volcanism with oceanic aseismic volcanism. Pueblo (Moench, 1963a, b; Schlee and Moench, 1963a, b; Lipman and Any simple explanation of the sag-volcanism relationship at Mount Moench, 1972), where it was responsible for stagnating the flow of the Taylor must address these unique characteristics. Rio San Jose and creating the cienega there. The location of the vent for this flow has not been determined. LATE QUATERNARY ERUPTIONS Other relatively recent eruptions occur 25 km south of Mesita and The tholeiitic McCartys lava flow is one of the most voluminous 1-40 (Moench, 1964) and include the Cerro Verde lava cone and Cerro recent flows in the world. Its youthful "malpais" topography assured Colorado cinder cone. The primary pressure-ridge type topography of its recognition by non-scientists and scientists alike, and, as a landmark, the Cerro Verde flows is preserved locally. Judging from other flows it has figured in tales of gold and fictional adventures of cowboys of similar preservation that have been dated, it may be the result of an (Dobie, 1967; L'amour, 1960). Several studies and maps have encom- eruption on the order of 200,000 to 400,000 years ago; however, little passed at least parts of the flow (Nichols, 1946; Kuiper and others, is known about the volcanism of this area (Kelley and Wood, 1946; 1966; Thaden and others, 1967a; Renault, 1970; Leeman, 1970; Hathe- Jicha, 1958). way, 1971; Laughlin and others, 19726; Lipman and Moench, 1972; Carden and Laughlin, 1974; and Maxwell, this guidebook).
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